Caning their rider of tartrazine-enriched orange squash and fizzy cola bottles, Los Campesinos! unleash another sugar-rush induced, frenzied pop outburst.
‘Unleash’ really may be too strong a word for the release of a single taken from their internet-posted demo, and ‘shared’ online, ad nauseam, thereafter. Speaking of nausea – far from the suggested dark nature of the title – Death To Los Campesinos is no Pixies-inspired, jagged, post-punk tune; it’s so sickly sweet and smug, they are practically vomiting flowers… Just as vocalist, Aleksandra, knowingly does in the song’s video, as the band are swamped by kittens, balloons and errant streamers.
Of course, they are consciously twee, and Los Campesinos! are as camp as they can muster – second vocalist, Gareth, sounding a little like an alarming amalgam of Pete Dougherty and Alan Carr – but they’re endowed with gloriously frenetic indie-pop sensibilities that swipe influences from The Go! Team to Broken Social Scene.
This is their most capable release to date though, and – along with honourary Canadian status – it may have earned them a dead-cert hit LP.
